Les tours penchées de Gehry, des lofts design et le Rhin juste au pas de la porte.
Un ancien port de travail, renaissant en verre et en acier
Certains quartiers se développent lentement ; le Medienhafen, lui, a été réinventé. Pendant un siècle, il a été le port de travail de Düsseldorf – le port de commerce, rempli de grues, d’entrepôts et de voies ferrées le long du Rhin, juste au sud de la vieille ville. Lorsque le trafic de marchandises s’est déplacé ailleurs, la ville a commencé en 1990 à transformer l’ancien bassin du port franc – parcelle par parcelle et sans plan directeur – et, à la fin de la décennie, ce coin était devenu l’endroit le plus photographié de la ville. Aujourd’hui, le Medienhafen est le lieu où Düsseldorf abrite le jour ses agences de médias, de publicité et d’architecture, et remplit la nuit ses bars sur les toits : un décor de verre et d’acier autour de l’ancien bassin portuaire, où les grues d’origine et les quais ont été conservés comme souvenir de son usage passé.
Pour les nouveaux arrivants, il est important de bien comprendre ce qu’est le Medienhafen – et ce qu’il n’est pas. Il est central, moderne, international et plein de vie – mais c’est un quartier que l’on habite plutôten margeque vraiment en plein centre. Les logements y sont rares et chers, et le véritable cœur résidentiel bat dans les rues un peu plus à l’intérieur des terres. Plus d’informations à ce sujet ci‑dessous.
On vit plutôt à côté du port médiatique qu’en son sein – les véritables logements se trouvent un peu plus à l’intérieur des terres.
Diese berufliche Identität ist wichtig, wenn ein Job der Grund ist, warum Sie nach Düsseldorf kommen. Der Hafen ist der Medien- und Kreativmotor der Stadt – Sender, Werbe- und PR-Agenturen, Mode- und Designstudios – mit dem smarten, internationalen Tempo, das dazugehört. Wenn Sie bei einem dieser Unternehmen eine Stelle bekommen, könnte Ihr Arbeitsweg ein kurzer Spaziergang am Wasser sein – und genau das macht einen großen Teil des Reizes aus.
Wenn du dir hier einen Job in den Medien sicherst, könnte dein Arbeitsweg ein Spaziergang am Wasser sein.
Gehry's leaning towers and a harbour full of statement buildings
The Medienhafen is, in effect, an open-air gallery of contemporary architecture, and its signature is the Neuer Zollhof — Frank Gehry's trio of leaning, curving towers, finished in 1998–99. One is clad in white plaster, one in red brick, and the mirrored centre building reflects both. Düsseldorfers call them Gehrys Tänzer, Gehry's dancers, and they are the single most photographed thing in the city.
But the towers are only the headline. Because the harbour was developed building by building rather than to one plan, the variety is the point: the colour-panelled Colorium by William Alsop with its jutting red roof, minimalist concrete by David Chipperfield, the glass Stadttor (City Gate) at the edge, a wooden pedestrian-and-cycle bridge with a restaurant slung in its middle, and — threaded between them — the listed cranes and quay walls of the original port. Old and new in the same frame.
Old harbour cranes and leaning glass towers, in the same frame.
Waterside restaurants, rooftop bars and the after-work crowd
After dark, the offices empty and the harbour fills. The Medienhafen is one of the city's prime addresses for eating and drinking: waterside restaurants along the Speditionstraße and Kaistraße, cocktail terraces, rooftop bars with the towers lit up below, and clubs that run late at the weekend. It leans upscale and design-conscious — this is where Düsseldorf does after-work drinks and special-occasion dinners rather than a cheap Altbier in a wood-panelled Brauhaus.
Be warned, though, that it's a destination as much as a neighbourhood. On a warm Friday the harbour pulls in the whole city, so the quiet you get on a Tuesday evening is not the quiet you get on a Saturday night — worth weighing if you're tempted by a flat with a balcony over the water.
A neighbourhood on a Tuesday; the whole city's terrace on a Saturday.
The Rhine Tower, the parliament and the walk to the old town
Standing over it all is the Rheinturm, the 240-metre Rhine Tower of 1982 and the city's tallest structure. There's an observation deck and, above it, the revolving Top 180 restaurant; the shaft itself carries the Lichtzeitpegel, a column of lights that tells the time and is often billed as one of the largest digital clocks in the world. At its foot sits the circular Landtag, the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The tower also marks the start of the riverfront proper. From its foot the Rheinuferpromenade runs north along the water straight into the Altstadt — a ten-minute riverside walk, past the parliament and the lawns, that is one of the real pleasures of living down here.
A ten-minute riverside walk takes you from the Rhine Tower to the longest bar in the world.
Design lofts and harbour views, for those who want new and central
Living in the Medienhafen proper is a particular taste. There isn't much housing, and what exists is high-end: design lofts, penthouses and new-build apartments with floor-to-ceiling glass and harbour or Rhine views, often in buildings that share an address with offices and hotels. It suits professionals, couples and relocating singles who want modern, central and waterside, and who'll happily trade green space and family infrastructure for architecture and a balcony over the water. Families and anyone after a quieter, leafier street tend to look just inland — which is where most people who say they "live at the Medienhafen" actually live. HeyFlats lists furnished apartments both in the harbour buildings and in the streets immediately around them.
The residential heart next door — Lorettostraße, cafés and old façades
Step a few hundred metres back from the water and you reach Unterbilk and its Lorettoviertel, the residential quarter the Medienhafen leans on. Once sleepy, it is now one of Düsseldorf's most sought-after addresses: handsome turn-of-the-century façades, the boutique-and-café spine of Lorettostraße, the tree-lined Fürstenwall and Bilker Allee, the greenery of the Florapark and the K21 modern-art museum in the old Ständehaus.
This is also where the furnished-flat market really lives. It draws a mix of young professionals, creatives and families into classic Altbau with high ceilings and parquet, alongside new residential ensembles rising on the seam between the harbour and the Loretto streets. You get the Medienhafen's restaurants and the Rhine on your doorstep, with an actual neighbourhood to come home to.
Most people who say they live at the Medienhafen really live in the Loretto streets just behind it.
The Medienhafen sits right at the edge of the city centre. Trams and the U-Bahn — the Kirchplatz and Landtag/Stromstraße stops, with Bilk's stations close by — put the Altstadt, the Hauptbahnhof and the Königsallee within minutes, and the whole quarter is walkable and cycle-friendly, with the Rhine and the old town a short stroll along the promenade. For a central address it's exceptionally well connected; you rarely need a car, though a parking space in the newer buildings comes at a premium.
